In short order, Pixar moved away from medical imaging, instead continuing to refine their proprietary digital rendering software, RenderMan, while making commercials even as they set out to accomplish a very lofty goal - to make the first ever feature-length all-CGI film. Pixar's subsequent shorts secured their status as the leader in computer animation. put storytelling first, demonstrating the narrative ability of the art. While other people were showing landscapes and technical demos, Lasseter's short Luxo Jr. Though it didn't sell very well, Steve Jobs continued to pour money into it, and Pixar repurposed itself as a firm creating computer-animated commercials for companies such as Listerine Mouthwash and Lifesavers candies.Īt the same time, Lasseter continued to use CGI to make short films and showed them around at conventions, specifically the computer-graphics convention SIGGRAPH. The company was named Pixar after their first product, a video rendering computer intended for medical use.

Seeking money for his divorce costs (and also because of the failure known as Howard the Duck), Lucas eventually sold it to Steve Jobs for $10 million. in his downtime, with the assistance of computer genius Ed Catmull. He created a CGI short entitled The Adventures of André & Wally B. Working there was one John Lasseter, a former Disney animator who got fired for trying to push the company to experiment with computer animation. The company originally did this and that for a while, most notably the Genesis planet simulation from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the stained-glass knight from Young Sherlock Holmes. It began in 1979 when George Lucas used some of his money to form a new division at Lucasfilm known as 'Graphics Group'.

Pixar is an animation studio based in Emeryville, California.

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